Government

Local public safety agencies are teaming up to prepare for emergency scenarios like a shooting or a bomb threat.

First responders will hold a hostile event training exercise the evening of Monday, May 9 at St. Dominic School. Participating agencies are Northfield Police Department, Northfield Area Fire & Rescue, and Emergency Medical Services of Northfield Hospital & Clinics.  

This is a planned exercise. The site will have police, fire and ambulance traffic outside the school. Inside, trainees will be conducting different scenarios and drills to prepare themselves in the event that a hostile situation ever presents itself.

Hostile event training has become common for first responders across the U.S.

“It’s now the standard to include police, fire and EMS in the training because those are the three groups that will respond to an event,” said Monte Nelson, Northfield Chief of Police.

• a review of revised discipline policies
• a vote to make changes to the Spanish and Chinese language program

 The League of Women Voters of Northfield & Cannon Falls invites the public to attend their Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 23rd at the Friends’ Meeting House at 512 Washington Street in Northfield.  All are welcome to come for the entire morning. There will be coffee and social time at 9 am, followed by a brief business meeting at 9:30 am.  The Program will begin at 10:00 am.  Deb Fitzpatrick, Program Director of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Policy’s Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy, will speak on “The Battle for Equal Pay:  Men on Paternity Leave, Women in Hard Hats, and Other Fronts in the Fight.”  There will be time for Q & A following Ms. Fitzpatrick’s presentation. 

• a discussion of low-enrollment language classes, specifically Chinese 2 and Spanish 6

The next regular school board meeting will be held on Monday, April 25, at 7pm, in the high school media center. 

Minnesota’s role in Super Tuesday is hours away. Party activists are busy making final arrangements for participating in this biennial grass roots exercise in democracy. Precinct caucuses meet at 7:00 p.m.

In Northfield this year, the Rice County Republican Party will caucus at the Northfield High School, 1400 Division Street South. http://www.ricecountyrepublicans.com/

The Northfield Rice County Democratic Party with meet in Northfield in several locations.  Most Northfield precincts, will meet at the Northfield Middle School, 2200 Division Street South. Residents of Ward 1 Precinct 1 will meet at Carleton College and Ward 4 Precinct 1 will meet at St. Olaf College.  For precise college locations:http://ricecountydfl.blogspot.com/

The Northfield School Board held its regular meeting on Monday, February 22, 2016, at 7pm, in the high school media center. A complete packet (including agenda) can be found here (table file here). Highlights of the meeting included:

Northfield Mayor Dana Graham talks about a variety of City topics in his latest short video.

http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/MediaCenter.aspx?CID=Minute-with-the-Mayor-13

According to their handy brochure: "The Northfield Initiative is a Carleton student-run organization designed to increase voter turnout in the city of Northfield."  The students' aim is to present objective, nonnpartisan information and to encourage all eligible voters to engage in democracy. 

Check out the Northfield Initiative website to learn about the March First precinct cauces.

http://nofoinitiative.org/

Public Hearing (20 minutes)

The Northfield School Board held a public meeting to gather feedback on applicants for the seat on the school board left vacant by the resignation of Anne Maple. There were four applicants for the position: Mike Birthelsen, Fritz Bogott, Ray Cox, and Dale Gehring. The video includes remarks by supporters of each candidate, and statements by the candidates themselves.  

Regular School Board Meeting (2 hours)

The Northfield School Board held its regular meeting on Monday, January 25, 2016, at 7pm, in the high school media center. Highlights of the meeting included:

Make No Noise ~ The Story of a Skatepark chronicles the 17-year long struggle of skateboarders in Northfield  to secure a permanent place for their sport. Shot in collaboration with members of the Northfield Skateboard Coalition, the film is a testament to young people's resilience and perseverance as well as an examination of the victories and failures of the democratic process in small town America. There will be a Q&A session following the screening with the filmmaker Cecilia Cornejo and members of the Coalition.

The public is invitvited to this exciting event at no charge. The screening will be at 7:00 p.m.in the Cinema at Carleton's Weitz Center, 3rd Street East. 

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund

The Northfield School Board held a special meeting on Thursday, January 14, 2016, to consider a matter of student discipline. The school board met in closed session for over four hours before returning to open session to vote on the resulting resolution. Due to student data privacy restrictions, no names or specifics of the case were mentioned in the public portion of the meeting.